Stephen Hawking and J.B. Hartle. 1983

J.B. Hartle (b.1939) and Stephen Hawking (1942-2018).

‘Wave function of the Universe.’ Offprint from: Physical Review D, Vol. 28, No. 12, pp.2960-2975. [Brookhaven, NY: The American Physical Society,] 15 December 1983. Provenance: the estate of the late Professor Stephen Hawking.

Offprint dealing with the Euclidean approach to boundary conditions of the Universe. This paper suggests that an expanding universe can be created quantum mechanically avoiding the singularities of classical big bang cosmology.

Famous paper describing the Hartle-Hawking 'no boundary proposal’: it applies Euclidean quantum gravity to derive a quantum mechanical wave function for the entire Universe and shows that there is a small but finite probability of tunnelling to an expanding de-Sitter universe.

Quarto (285 x 210mm). Stapled self-wrappers (punch holes).

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